Two weeks ago I created a presentation that I gave to our sales team. My goal was to create a “Coles Notes” version of Online Advertising to a group of people that traditionally sell print. I found a large assortment of web content and advertisements to use as a resource in quite a few locations on the Internet. Wikipedia does a really nice job for definitions and I found a ton of really creative ads on the DART Motif web site.

One thing that that is really important to understand about selling online is that it isn’t as confusing as everyone thinks it is. The concepts are the same as in print, its just the medium that has changed. Sales reps have a tendency to get caught up in all of the terminology and loose focus of their skills as a sales person.

In the end, online has a lot more to offer. It provides real time stats, geo targeting, immediate publishing and a variety of really intersting creative.

It is nice to see that the NY Times web site has finally decided to open up their content for free. This is proof that Newspapers are finally realizing the opportunities of online advertising.

Internet users are used to seeing advertisements and with the IAB maintaining standards, ads are becoming more effective. What I find interesting is the number of advertisers that think a click through is the only way to track success. In 2004, Double Click announced that the view through rate is consistently higher than the click through rate. This is difficult for the smaller advertisers to track but it is still an important consideration to keep in mind.

One of the most challenging tasks that I deal with is staying energized. By nature, I am an outgoing person, but even with my unusually energetic personality, I often find myself slowing down and losing focus of my goals. This is difficult to deal with because if I had my way, I would be running none stop 24 hours a day.

Throughout the past year, I have learned the importance of not over exerting myself. It didn’t take long to catch on because I took on a ridiculous amount of free lance and started a new management position at my work.

I have been making the extra effort to work the typical 8 hour work day. The secret is making sure those 8 hours count. This helps me rationalize leaving on time.

It scares me to death to run out of inspiration so I thought I would share a few things that I do to push myself.

* The number one thing that helps me stay focused is reading. Nothing gives me more inspiration and ideas than a good read from a useful blog or book.
* A nice run outside with my dog helps me get my mind on track.
* I told myself that I am not going to do free lance any more. It is hard to turn down but in the bigger picture, I would much rather work on personal projects in my free time than having to manage some one else’s. Freelance can also take away from holiday and family time, which can be the biggest problem of all.
* Look for inspiration and ideas daily. Whether it is a quick search on Digg or Google, visual inspiration on the Internet can be a huge help.
* Podcasts are always useful and entertaining. There are a ton of excellent podcasts online that tackle industry specific issues.

This is pretty much all that I do to stay up. With the exception of taking some video game and movie breaks, I can’t think of much more.

For the past few days I’ve been testing a really cool web stats app called have a mint. This application is developed by the well known desginer Shaun Inman.

For starters, I want to mention that this is the best statistical application that I’ve ever come across. All of the needed web stats are conveniently loaded on one page and it even provides an rss feed so you dashboard users can access your stats. For a complete feature list and demo check out haveamint.com